This picks up some of the points I made here
Recently, New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen filed a friend of the court brief, noting that 1 million New Jerseyans — or 40 percent of residents — live in property governed by homeowner associations and the number of residents moving into those communities is growing.
In the brief, the public advocate sided with the dissident homeowners, asking the court to rule that the homeowners do have a constitutional right to free speech that supersedes rules imposed by the homeowners association which should be treated as a “private government.” “As more people come under the regulatory authority of homeowners’ associations, and as those associations assert increasing control over the basic expressive and associational rights of their residents, the imperative to extend constitutional protections to these communities grows as well,” the advocate’s brief stated.
